Rep. Marsha Blackburn at the Pachyderm Club
Rep. Marsha Blackburn told the Pachyderm Club on Monday that the U.S. Senate is dysfunctional and she hopes to go there to get more legislation rolling.
The contender to take the seat now held by Chattanoogan Bob Corker said the House has sent over 400 bills to the Senate, but only 100 have been taken up and just 90 sent to the President's desk.
The Williamson County resident termed herself a "solid, consistent conservative" and said she will "stand with Donald Trump" on various issues, including building a wall along the nation's southern border.
She also said she is a foe of "Obamacare," saying, "We've got to get this off the books."
The speaker said insurance premiums are up 176 percent since the passage of the Affordable Care Act. She said 122,000 Tennesseans had to pay a penalty "for not buying Obamacare."
She said she will work to end Sanctuary Cities and push for immigration reform.
Asked about gun control, she said the House had sent two bills to the Senate that would help keep guns out of hands of those with disturbing backgrounds, but there has been no action on either one.
She said she favors sending most education matters back to the states, and said the states should also be over Medicaid.
The speaker said she was raised on a farm in south Mississippi. She said she got into politics in Williamson County by serving on the election commission and heading the county Republican Party. She later won a seat in the state Senate.
She told of as a young person having to convince the Southwestern Company to let her sell books for them. She said she was so successful that afterward Southwestern asked her to recruit other women.
It was one of the largest crowds for the club that meets each Monday at the International Towing Museum on South Broad Street.